Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Thunderbird won't open because it says another instance is already running. I can't see any other instance running. Any idea how I shut the other instance down?

  • 9 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by christ1

more options

I cannot get into Thunderbird at all today. If I try get the message "Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding. The olf Thunderbird process must be closed to open a new window." I then click on the CLose Thunderbird button and get a second message that says "Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible."

Can someone guide me through what I need to do to rectify this and get to my e-mails in Thunderbird?

I cannot get into Thunderbird at all today. If I try get the message "Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding. The olf Thunderbird process must be closed to open a new window." I then click on the CLose Thunderbird button and get a second message that says "Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." Can someone guide me through what I need to do to rectify this and get to my e-mails in Thunderbird?

All Replies (9)

more options

Thanks for that.

1) I can't find any Thunderbird tasks or processes that are running. 2) There is no parent.lock. There is a Telemetry.FailedProfileLocks file. Is that correct? 3) I haven't to my knowledge deleted, renamed or moved my profile folder. The profile is in C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles. I think that's correct? 4) I can't find a profiles.ini file. Where should I see that file? In the location in 3, above?

more options

I've now found the profiles.ini file and it appears to be correct. It states

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/zeo7pkvw.default

more options

I've since tried to run Thunderbird with my profile using command line arguments as described in the article. I managed to create a new profile and pointed it to the correct profile folder but was still told that I needed to close the Thunderbird application that was already running. Help...

more options
I managed to create a new profile and pointed it to the correct profile folder

I suppose this means you pointed the new profile to the existing profile folder? If so, you effectively didn't change anything, except an additional entry in profiles.ini.

Can you post your profiles.ini again?

There really should be a parent.lock file in your profile folder, even if Thunderbird isn't running. Please double check.

more options

Yes, that's what I did. Sorry a bit out of my depth here!

Profiles.ini is as follows:

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/zeo7pkvw.default

I've also uploaded an image of the contents of the Profiles folder itself.

more options

Thanks for the screenshot. If that is the entire contents of the profile folder, it's just a fraction of what's supposed to be there and something really ugly must have happened. Do you have a backup of your profile folder?

more options

I've got a Thunderbird.pcv file from when I installed Thunderbird on my new PC back in March. Is that the file that would have been created by MozBackup? If so, I've got something. (I've just learned that I need to back up my profile!)

more options

I guess so. Not using MozBackup here. You'd need to restore the backed up profile with MozBackup.